Not that long ago, the notion of a silk scarf conjured the lingering scent of mothballs in a grandmother’s dresser—equal parts cherished and outdated. There were, of course, flashes of Grace Kelly’s Riviera chic still woven into its legacy, but for many of us, our cultural association came courtesy of The White Lotus, where Jennifer Coolidge’s scarf prompted comparisons to Peppa Pig, not Monica Vitti.
Then the runways intervened. At Celine, Michael Rider is intent upon the accessory’s revival. His inaugural show, circa June 2025, took place under an enormous silk scarf “tent,” and by now, four collections in, the American in Paris has shown twill scarves looped around necks, tucked into blazers, and cascading off shoulders.
Inspired by the silk T-shirts worn as turbans at Sarah Burton’s fall 2026 Givenchy, I’ve been tying on a silk scarf kerchief-style on days when I have too much dry shampoo in my hair. I also enjoy sporting the occasional sarong or a wispily tacked-on top motivated by the tropical-office vibe that Julian Klausner has conjured at Dries Van Noten—Manhattan is an island, after all. And seeing everyone from Alexa Chung to Jennifer Lawrence in their folded foulards turned cummerbunds, it seems I’m not alone.
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Is all this a simple yearning for bygone glamour—or is it something more? Area’s Nicholas Aburn has an inkling. “I think there’s a collectible quality to scarves, which is really desirable,” he says as we mull over a waterfall wall of scarves at the Stella Dallas vintage store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Also: “Scarves invite personalization.” So much so that Aburn took inspiration from vintage examples to compose his own silk-scarf party dresses for Area’s fall collection. Whether you tie it like a halter or a tube top, there’s something exhilarating about being scantily clad in the finest tissue you can find.
Aburn himself is partial to what he calls a “Stefano Pilati,” which conjures an image of the former Saint Laurent creative director’s tucked-into-a-T-shirt scarf-wearing style. He grabs a greenish-brown paisley foulard and begins fiddling around to give it a perfect worn-in wrinkle before snapping, tucking, and tying for that exact Pilati twist. For me, he selects a geometric pastel creation in the vein of classic Hermès, where Nadège Vanhée has recently wound kerchiefs around gold chain-link necklaces.
“That really hits the spot,” he says, surveying the results. “You can do so many different things. It can be this sartorial menswear vibe one day, and Palm Beach the next.”
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